Two members of the infamous hacking organization LulzSec appeared in court in London on Monday, where they pled guilty to charges that they conspired to hack the Web sites of several prominent government and business organizations.
Two other men denied any involvement in the hacking sprees, which were carried out largely via DDoS (denial of service) attacks, which cripple the target server with a mass of traffic, often resulting in its crash.
All four men also denied the charges that they posted unlawfully obtained confidential computer data to public Web sites, namely LulzSec's own site. The two men who denied the charges against them will stand trial next year, while it's unknown at this point whether the two men who pled guilty to the charges of their involvement in the attacks will also stand trial for the charges they denied.
Targets of their attacks carried out over the past year have included the CIA and Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency and National Health Service, gaming giants Nintendo and Sony, the Arizona State Police, the Pentagon, and 20th Century Fox.
LulzSec is an offshoot of the larger hacking group Anonymous, which received widespread attention from the mass media for several prominent attacks over the past year. They were generally viewed favorably by the public for having noble causes, or targeting organizations that were perceived to be threats to the public good.
LulzSec on the other hand has been criticized for launching attacks that disrupt services for millions of users, and even posting sensitive user information that compromised millions of accounts. LulzSec has even been targeted by other hacker groups in response to their actions, which are considered a blight on the hacktivist community.
LulzSec leader Hector Xavier Monsegur, who went by the alias Sabu, was instrumental in the arrests and cases built against several of his organization's members, as he became an informant for the FBI after his arrest in June 2011.
